What is your Decorating Style?

Holly at Decor 8 recently posted some lovely home shots from Traditional Home magazine's website. The colorful rooms made me want to change my home again! I'm in a quandary. I love the Old World French interiors, but find myself attracted to black & white with pops of color or neutral tone-on-tone. I suppose I just like too many different looks, which isn't a bad thing, just a challenge!

Rooms in my home have changed from Art Deco, French Country and Victorian, to Shabby Chic and Hollywood Glamour/Regency! It's never-ending. I see something I like and want to change my house. It's challenging to integrate the old weathered European look with the clean lines of more sleek and modern design.

This home featured in Traditional Home has a "circus-theme" decor (it's actually a circa-1840s Italianate house that was built as the winter headquarters for John Robinson’s Circus, the largest circus of its day.) I love its white background with "candy-colored" accents.

What is your style/decor? Would love to hear any stories you have to share!

Photos courtesy of Traditional Home Magazine

Neoclassical Style

photo from 1stdibs.com

I was recently reading a post on Poppytalk's blog on Neoclassical design trend that inspired me to write about it.

Canadian House & Home's 2008 Trend Issue shows some fun, current images of decorating with Neoclassical style. I just love the look and have vintage pieces in my home and offered on my website.

Originating in the late 18th Century, Neoclassical design is inspired by the architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome.

photo from 1stdibs.com

photo from 1stdibs.com

Neoclassical furniture is characterized by restrained, symmetrical design and tends to be rectangular. Art Deco is a decorative style emerging in the 1930's from French origins and inspired by a Neoclassical influence.

photo from parishotelboutique.com

I just love the Greek key motifs, geometric shapes and lines of Neoclassical design. I think Canadian House & Home has it right. It really isn't a trend though. It can be integrated in any decor from modern to traditional and never go out of style.

photo from 1stdibs.com

photo from parishotelboutique.com

This is my favorite acquisition! A vintage Neoclassical style chair from the famous Crown Room at the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill in San Francisco. It is quite rare and dates to c. 1960. I have some in my home and was thrilled to acquire this. The "magical" Crown Room was renovated in the late 1990's and is now used for meeting and conferences. I acquired my first "Crown Room" chair at a flea market many years ago and have been on the "hunt" ever since then! Ten years later, I have 4 in my home and one offered on my website. I left the original paint in tact and had them upholstered to match the original upholstery. Sorry that these lovely chairs are no longer at the Fairmont, but happy to have my own! They are the epitome of Neoclassical design and with the hotel history, I couldn't be happier!

Decorating with Animal Accessories

Vintage glazed ceramic elephant at Paris Hotel Boutique

The first time I really got inspired by decorating with animal accessories was during my stay at the Viceroy Hotel in Palm Springs, designed by Kelly Wearstler. This was about 3 years ago. I had heard about Kelly Wearstler and KWID, but never stayed at one of her hotels. My friend Janet and I nearly flipped when we saw it! The dramatic black & white decor with touches of lemon yellow. Each guest room balcony had a white cement whippet sitting proudly overlooking the pool. We went crazy! What a great touch! We asked to look at some of the larger suites and they had paw prints leading into the room. Another great touch.

After that stay I starting adding elements of Hollywood Regency decor to my home. I purchased Kelly's first book, Modern Glamour, and had fun reading through it and seeing how she used animals as a touch of whimsy in her decor. She says, "Animal accessories call out to me every time I go shopping." She talks about animals being the most inspiring things on the planet. Being sculptural and colorful. She says, "I also use a lot of animal forms as accessories to temper a room that may seem too forbidding or too decorative. Animals really lighten things up a little and enrich our spaces." I couldn't agree more. As soon as I returned home from Palm Springs, I was on the hunt for whippets. My friend Janet found me this one...the exact whippet in Kelly Wearsler's book. I love its special place in my living room. It dates to the 1950's/60's, glazed ceramic, made in Italy.

My whippet
Photo from Modern Glamour, Kelly Wearstler

My latest acquisition is a fabulous large black and white ceramic glazed elephant planter. It's a wonderful eye-catching piece! I was going to keep it, but I am accumulating far too many animals in my home and that includes my real dog, Vito! The elephant is available here on my web site, parishotelboutique.com. Check it out!

Animal accessories have been getting increasingly popular. There are many reproductions being made, but none thrill me as much as the vintage breed. The Italian ceramic pieces are so well made and more detailed than the modern reproductions. They can get costly though. If you want the look, they are definitely out there at different price points. Do you like decorating with animal accessories? What are your favorites?

Photos from Modern Glamour by Kelly Wearstler

Viceroy Palm Springs, from Modern Glamour by Kelly Wearstler

What is Hollywood Regency?

Photos of the Viceroy Hotel, Palm Springs
designed by Kelly Wearstler

Photos of Bergdorf Goodman Restaurant
designed by Kelly Wearstler
Gorgeous!

Trina Turk, Los Angeles
Designed by Kelly Wearstler

Many people ask, "What is Hollywood Regency decor?" I'm not sure I can answer that simply. My feeling is that it's a bit of Hollywood glamour with a "hotel" feel. Who started it? Dorothy Draper? Billy Haines? I am totally enthralled by the refreshing look of combining elements of the 40's through 60's with traditional decor. You will find lamps and furniture on my web site that are the "Hollywood Regency" look. Read on...I've tried my best to get some good definitions from sources on the internet. AND, if the look interests you, pick up a copy of the books listed below.

To quote designare.com they say, "Dorothy Draper may not have been the first high society interior decorator, but she was the first successful female commercial interior decorator. In an era where most female interior decorators gravitated to their rich friends' homes for design jobs and architects were chosen to work on commercial projects, Draper broke the mold and pursued public commissions as well as residential jobs.

Born into a wealthy family in exclusive Tuxedo Park, New York, Dorothy Tuckerman did not have to lift a finger to make a living. She married well-connected Dr. George Draper and eventually bore him three children.

Most women of this Edwardian era would consider their life complete, but Dorothy Draper was no ordinary person. Dissatisfied with just being a housewife and society matron, Draper started designing her own home. Overwhelmed by compliments they soon received, the Drapers quickly sold their home and bought another one to design. Soon she was doing her family friends' homes and from there she took the plunge into commercial projects.

Helping her take the plunge was one of her close friends, real estate developer Douglas Elliman. Elliman provided Draper with contacts to land projects including large apartment houses and high-end public lobbies. Her first major project was the Carlyle Hotel in New York City in 1930. She designed the space in the current Art Deco style. Elegant friezes of stylized Greek maidens and athletes against dark walls looked down from the ceilings.

Her next major project was the apartment house complex, Hampshire House, located at Central Park South. Draper envisioned a mixture of English and Italian baroque throughout the space. Oversized black and white doors line the marble tiled corridors. Plaster reliefs carved in the ornate style of Grinling Gibbons decorated the walls. Her signature style of large floral prints in bright colors against striped walls brightened up the rooms.

The lobby of the Hampshire House, completed in 1937.

In 1939, Draper left for San Bernardino, California to design Arrowhead Springs Hotel and Spa. The space included public lobbies, restaurants, lounges, a theater and guest rooms."

Through this project, Draper popularized the "Hollywood Regency" style of design. Glamorous sets of luxurious materials, oversized furniture, and sparkling chandeliers became de rigueur in taste.

The trend has come back with designer Kelly Wearstler giving it a modern twist.

I just love this look and here are some photos of Kelly Wearstler's commercial projects which can also be found on her web site, KWID.

Designer Jonathan Adler defines Hollywood Regency...

"I define Hollywood Regency as Neo-classical lines mixed with Hollywood glamour and a top note of mod moxie. Hollywood Regency was a style of architecture and decoration popular in the 60s in LA that was a revival of classical regency style through a modern lens. Hollywood Regency added a layer of pattern and decoration and opulence and glamour to the minimalism of mid-century modernism.

I think that the current rage for Hollywood Regency is a reaction to the Christian Liaigre-ish minimalism that has been pervasive for the last several years. Design was starting to look a bit dour and grey and joyless and I think people had simply had enough. So, Hollywood Regency has become a catch-all name to describe design that thumbs its nose at minimalism in favor of classical references and lots of decoration. As for the mirrors and bamboo and Asiana and chrome, those are all design elements that figured into Hollywood Regency style the first time around and I think they're back because they're decorative and glamorous.

I have always been a maximalist and an eclecticist. My pad has always featured a mix of my own stuff with modern classics and Louis XVI chairs and a dollop of rococo, so I fully support design that has a dash of opulence and a soupçon of decoration."

"Modern Glamour: The Art of Unexpected Style"
Kelly Wearstler
a must have...

"In The Pink: Dorothy Draper"
by Carleton Varney
great book!